Manager Brad Mills seems to be safe, but the rest of the front office has seen a seismic shift. Names like Tampa Bay GM and native Houstonian Andrew Friedman, former Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker and Senior VP of Baseball Operations for MLB Kim Ng are being thrown around as possible replacements for Wade and each one of them would be superior choices. Other names coming out are David Forst from Oakland, Thad Levine and A.J. Preller, both from Texas. Again, all great choices.

This is what the fan base has clamored for since the decay of Houston's organization began in 2006 – a clean slate, a return-to-basics and a fresh voice. We'd grown tired of McLane's "Are you ready to be a champion?" motto, and we'd grown frustrated with Ed Wade's horrible decisions in free agency and trades. After 106 losses and multiple trades that saw franchise icons Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn dealt away, even the uniforms are coming under fire.

It's not Ed Wade's fault that Houston was so bad – at least not entirely. He was given an impossible job, a lose-lose situation from the outset. His job, while he was employed in Houston, was to eventually shed payroll, replenish the farm system and keep the big league team competitive. Hey, two out of three isn't bad; though we don't know exactly how good the farm system is and likely won't know until two or three years from now. There's a lot we don't know about Ed Wade's enduring legacy going forward and there's plenty who believe he did no good and some who believe he did plenty.

But we can agree on one thing – the Astros needed to join the rest of baseball in the 21st century.

As one of the last remaining, non-metrics driven franchises, the Astros organization has been the laughingstock of baseball, trying to play Moneyball like a guy throwing darts in the dark. No amount of measurable metrics knowledge would've allowed Houston to pay guys like Kaz Matsui and Brandon Lyon $15 million over three years apiece, or to trade youth and cost efficiency for Miguel Tejada. Mike Hampton would've never happened, nor Pedro Feliz, or Bill Hall.

When it comes to jokes, the Astros have been the punch line for years.

Whoever the incoming GM is, he or she will have a massive amount of obstacles in the way of just making the major league team competitive again. Some believe it will take four or five years, maybe longer, for the Astros to reach that stage. Add that colossal road block to the fact that no one knows what kind of owner Crane is, and that the Astros have hardly any talent in Houston, and are still years from finding out what new prospects like Jonathan Singleton and George Springer will bring to their lineup, if anything, and this doesn't exactly look like the most attractive job.

Whoever takes on the GM role will do it with the understanding that they, too, may not see things through to the end. Not many GMs get that much time to make things happen.

I believe that metrics and simple gut feeling, or guts, need to be harmoniously balanced in order to breed a consistent winner and contender. Some teams are too much of one thing and the Astros have been too much of a bad thing. Yes, they've turned around as far as direction goes, but this is a results-driven league and Ed Wade wasn't getting it done. As for Tal, he was Drayton's right-hand man, but when Crane hired Postolos, it was pretty clear that Smith had no role in Houston.

Wade's primary goal to rebuild the farm system will be carried on by another GM who will begin to build on the work Wade has done since taking over in 2007. That is, draft smart, build winners at the lower depths, promote and, eventually, start fielding a winner in Houston. It would be a dream come true for Houstonians if Friedman can be persuaded to join the Astros, and with the team heading to the AL West in 2013, that might add to the enticement and odds of that happening. But for now, the race to have a front office team in place by the Winter Meetings, taking place Dec. 5-8, starts now.

The bottom line that Jim Crane sent in his first week on the job was that there's no excuse for a franchise with the financial advantages that Houston has to be this bad at every level. That's why Ed Wade and Tal Smith are gone. If you were part of the problem, you won't be around for the solution. Sounds like accountability to me.